Harriet Ryan covered both of Phil Spector's trials. Now, she covers the HBO movie, Phil Spector, and finds it pretty damned inaccurate.

Here's a quick taste of the show I saw last night…

A friend of mine over at NBC tells me that the reason Jay Leno isn't discussing (or making jokes about) the transition from him to Jimmy Fallon is that terms are still being negotiated. That's why NBC isn't discussing it, either. I would imagine the network wants to make sure Jay doesn't go rogue on them…or quickly reappear in some sort of competing show.

Actually, it's hard to figure where that competing show might be. Back when we went through this with Conan displacing Jay, it was a very real option (complete with actual offers) for Jay to go over and do much the same show at ABC. NBC's internal research even yielded the prediction that going head-to-head like that, Jay would beat Conan. Now, ABC's out of the question…and if Jay went into syndication or for some off-network deal, he'd never have enough clearances to be competitive at that hour.

The most likely place for him would then be Fox. That would also present a clearance problem as Fox some time ago gave up offering a network feed after 10 PM and now their local stations all have expensive (and also profitable) deals to air reruns like Seinfeld at 11 PM and after. When Conan left The Tonight Show, everyone assumed that Fox would find a way to clear that time period for him…and indeed, many Fox execs tried to make that work. But Rupert Murdoch was cool to the idea and stations weren't eager for it so it didn't happen. In his book on that whole square dance, Bill Carter said that if Jay had come on the market, all the pieces would have fallen into place…but that was then. Leno is older and more controversial…and it sure doesn't feel to me like he'll wind up with a late night show on Fox.

That's even assuming he yearns to stay in the Talk Show business. That doesn't seem likely…though as we've all seen, that which does not seem likely often happens in television. Especially late night television. I still think booting Leno for Fallon is illogical and that it won't yield the ratings betterment that NBC hopes to achieve. Meantime, I'm told Leno is already getting soft inquiries as to his availability for other TV jobs, positions other than late night talk shows. It doesn't seem likely that he'd want any of them, either.

I more or less agree with Richard Rushfield that Leno has not received proper credit for the amazing achivement of 21 years of usually winning a very tough time slot…or at worst and for a short period, finishing a profitable second. Actually, I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea of hating a TV star at all. I have friends who…well, if you'd given them the chance to execute Timothy McVeigh or Kathy Lee Gifford would have dropped the pellet on Kathy Lee and wondered why you had to ask. I like Leno most of the time…and for the times I don't, my TV has an off switch and my TiVo knows how to fast-forward.

I've received a whole buncha questions about the Leno/Fallon situation. I'll try and do a From the E-Mailbag post later tonight.

Taking care of my mother and meeting script deadlines have kept me away from New York for several years now…so I missed all 170 performances there of Catch Me If You Can. That was a new musical by some of the same folks who did Hairspray on Broadway, and they adapted it from the movie of the same name. Briefly, it's the story of a gent named Frank Abagnale, Jr. who liked to forge checks and to do things like become a pilot (without knowing how to fly) or a doctor (without going to medical school). Arresting him became the obsession of an FBI agent named Carl Hanratty and an unusual rivalry/friendship developed between the two men.

The musical — which is done "period" in the sixties, though with a few anachronisms — is staged like a variety show of the day. It starts in an airport with Hanratty finally getting his man. Then that man hosts The Frank Abagnale Jr. Show, replaying the events of his life like everyone is on The Andy Williams Show. The music is bouncy, the story is interesting (though stretched a bit thin by the end) and there's a chorus of very cute young women who play stewardesses, nurses and other women in Frank's world.

I liked what I saw of it in online clips…and I especially liked the musical number that Norbert Leo Butz did on the Tony Awards. On the other hand, it did close rather swiftly and a few friends who'd seen it told me of their disappointment. The national tour is inching its way across America and when I saw that it was alighting briefly at the Pantages up in Hollywood, I decided on an impulse to get tickets.

I wouldn't if I'd realized it was a non-equity (i.e., non-union) tour. As a pro-union guy, I'm uncomfy with the ethics and as a theater-goer, I'm aware that non-equity shows frequently suck. That's largely because they start with the premise of "let's do it cheap" and they have to cast from a talent pool that excludes the best folks, who are all Equity members. This one's advertised as "The Original Production From Broadway." That means the same script, music, sets, costumes and staging…but none of the same actors.

I'd paid for the tix before I realized that so Carolyn and I went last night…and I think it helped that I went in with low confidence because I had a pretty good time. I can see why the show didn't fly higher and longer in New York. It gets rather tedious and forced at the end, and all that dazzling choreography services numbers that only occasionally feel special — the one Butz did on the Tonys, for instance. Still, it has an energy and a pace that until the last twenty minutes or so, made it hard for me to take my eyes off the stage. And the young man who plays Frank, Stephen Anthony, is sensational. The audience loved him and also Merritt David Janes, who played the determined FBI agent.

So as non-equity tours go, it's a good one. They journey next to Chicago, then Lansing, then Milwaukee and Detroit and onward, all for brief layovers. As musical comedies go…well, I'd probably do you a favor if I told you it wasn't very good, but then you went anyway and it could exceed your expectations. It sure exceeded mine.

Well now! It's now being reported — by Bill Carter, who knows enough not to pass around rumors as fact — that Jimmy Fallon will indeed succeed Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show next year and also that the show will shift back to New York. Carter's article, being for the New York Times, acts as if the change of venue is more interesting than the change of hosts.

So ignore most of what I said about how this didn't seem likely to me…and note that I did say NBC execs might do what seemed unlikely to me. It still seems unlikely but that's one of the fun things about show business. The unlikely sometimes happens. A lot of folks are going to say this is an even more lunkheaded move by the network than the Conan thing — replacing one of the few guys on the network who's consistently delivered for them at a time when most of their schedule is plunging like Louie Anderson on Splash.

Obvious questions abound…

• If Jay stays on until his contract is up (in September of '14, as I understand) will he spend every night hence trashing the network? My guess is that they'll take him off the air well before then so they can "bench" him for a while; that is, unless he agrees not to reappear immediately in a competing show and to compare any more NBC executives to reptiles. But he will be on the air for a while…
• …and will he then reappear in a competing show? You don't have the kind of success he's had and not get other offers. Leno ain't the retiring kind.
• Do they have someone in mind for 12:35? And will they then do that show from New York, forcing it to subsist on the guests Fallon doesn't want? And totally bypassing the talent pool available out here in Los Angeles? That pool of potential guests includes a lot of stars on NBC shows that desperately need promotion and The Tonight Show has always been one of their most potent tools for promotion.
• Will Lorne Michaels exec-produce The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon? And the new 12:35 replacement? That would pretty much make Michaels "The King of Late Night" in a sense that even Johnny Carson never was.
• Could Jimmy Kimmel be any happier? And could David Letterman have more mixed feelings? He wanted to outlast Leno but once he does, will his career be about anything else besides when will he step down and let CBS follow suit and stick a younger, allegedly more competitive host in that slot?
• And, uh, so what exactly does NBC do if this doesn't work? If Fallon doesn't significantly improve on Leno's numbers (which Conan couldn't do not that long ago) and if the new 12:35 entry doesn't fly high, could the execs there look worse? One of the big complications in installing O'Brien at 11:35 was that for the first time ever, they tried to replace both of their late night shows at roughly the same time. They had two shows that were working and tried to install two new ones in the hope of not only equal but greater success. They only batted .500 and even that was way ahead of the usual pass/fail rate for new programming. And now once again, they're taking out two shows that are working where they are and hoping to make different ones simultaneously flourish on those hunks of real estate.
• And I just thought of one more: What kind of contractual guarantee does Mr. Fallon have that he won't be cut loose after seven months and sentenced to Basic Cable?

Those are just the immediate questions that come to mind. There will be others. Methinks those of us who follow late night programming as a spectator sport should keep our seat belts fastened and our tray tables locked in the upright position as we stow all portable electronic devices. It's going to be that kind of flight.

David Ferguson writes one of those articles that some folks won't "get" as parody/sarcasm. It starts like this…

I have always been a big proponent of following your heart and doing exactly what you want to do. It sounds so simple, right? But there are people who spend years — decades, even — trying to find a true sense of purpose for themselves. My advice? Just find the thing you enjoy doing more than anything else, your one true passion, and do it for the rest of your life on nights and weekends when you're exhausted and cranky and just want to go to bed.

To make a serious comment on an article that is non-serious, at least at face value: I was amazed at the number of friends I re-encountered at my 25th high school reunion who said things not unlike, "I'm just trying to decide what I want to do with my life." "I'm trying to get my shit together" was uttered by a few. A general rule of thumb is that if you don't have your shit together a quarter-century after you got out of high school, you're using the wrong sorting system.

I am not a big believer in the philosophy, "You can be anything you want to be in life." I didn't have the practical option to play for the Lakers, sing opera at Lincoln Center or ride the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby. I did have a range of realistic choices wherein I easily found something I did love to do. It was around age ten that Satan (you know: that guy who looks like Barack Obama) came to me and offered me the following deal: That I would become a professional writer and always earn a living at it but I would never be anything else. I have never regretted signing that one in blood. But the time to make those deals if at all possible is before you have to go out and get your first job.

I think one of the reasons more people don't figure out What They Want To Be When They Grow Up is that they think there's a much thicker catalog from which to pick than there is. Or their first choice is, like, President of the United States or Richest Person in the World or Hugh Jackman…and anything short of that seems like a sign of failure.

My father, as I've written on many occasions, hated his occupation. It was a job he took because he needed to pay rent and he told himself it was just until he found something better…but he stayed in it until he hit retirement age. Apart from his near-ideal marriage, the happiest thing in his life was that his son didn't make the same mistake. I've made most of the others but just out of dumb luck, not that one. Don't you.

So, apart from the fact that the guy likes basketball, what do we know about this Kim Jong-un guy in North Korea? According to Fred Kaplan, not nearly enough.

A little more than a week from now, thousands of enlightened souls will converge on Anaheim, deftly avoid the Disneyland traffic and get themselves to WonderCon. We like WonderCon. We liked it all the years it was in Berkeley, California. We liked it even more all the years it was in San Francisco…and hope it returns there soon. And we liked it last year for its first Anaheim incarnation.

WonderCon is run by the same folks who operate the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego. It's not as big or star-studded but you'll never suffer from a lack of things to browse 'n' maybe buy or things to do. One of the things you might do is attend any or all of the programming events that involve moi. Here's the rundown of them…

Quick Draw!
Friday, March 29, 2013: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM in Room 300AB
It's another duel-to-the-drawing-boards competition as three of the fastest, funniest cartoonists working today vie for the nonexistent crown. They are Scott Shaw! (The Simpsons), Jeff Smith (Bone), and Bobby London (Dirty Duck), with some surprise participants as well. Ring-leading it all as always is the Quizzzzmaster of Quick Draw!, Mark Evanier. No wagering.

Spotlight on Brent Anderson
Friday, March 29, 2013: 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM in Room 203
He's been one of the brightest lights in comic art since he burst on the scene with Ka-Zar the Savage, Somerset Holmes, Strikeforce: Morituri, and the X-Men graphic novel, God Loves, Man Kills. More recently you know him from Kurt Busiek's Astro City and other popular comics. He's WonderCon Anaheim special guest Brent Anderson, and here's your chance to hear him interviewed about his life and career by Mark Evanier.

That 70's Panel
Saturday, March 30, 2013: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM in Room 203
A look at comics in what some call the Bronze Age…a time of massive change within in the industry. What made that era unique from comics that came before and after? Perhaps we'll learn as Mark Evanier (Groo the Wanderer) chats with Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula), J. M. DeMatteis (Justice League), Len Wein (Swamp Thing), and Brent Anderson (Astro City).

Cartoon Voices
Saturday, March 30, 2013: 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM in Room 300DE
Once again, cartoon voice director Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show) gathers together six of the top professionals who speak for animated cartoons. Hear a demonstration of their craft starring Laraine Newman (The Fairly OddParents), Gregg Berger (G.I. Joe), Laura Summer (The Real Ghostbusters), Jason Marsden (Young Justice), Saratoga Ballantine (Guild Wars 2), and Neil Kaplan (Starcraft II).

Writing for Animation
Sunday, March 31, 2013: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM in Room 300DE
Interested in writing cartoons? Or just curious how it's done? Mark Evanier has written hundreds of scripts for such programs as The Garfield Show, Garfield and Friends, Dungeons 'n' Dragons, Scooby Doo, Richie Rich, ABC Weekend Special, CBS Storybreak, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more. He'll tell you how it all happens and answer any questions you may have.

Other times, I'll be roaming the convention. Folks always ask me, "Where's your table?" and I always turn down the one the con (any con) offers me so I can wander freely and see things…but I'm large and easy to find. If you see me, say howdy. If you don't see me, just consider yourself lucky.

Which hotel loyalty card program is best for you? Our buddy Joe Brancatelli explains that it depends on who you are, where you travel, how much you spend, etc. But in most cases, you still don't get as generous a deal as you did a few years ago.

Today on The Leonard Lopate Show, which I'd never heard of either, there was a discussion of the great writer-cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman. Mr. Lopate hosts a radio show on WNYC, the big public radio station in New York and today, he welcomed Al Jaffee, Drew Friedman and Arnold Roth to talk about Harvey. The chat ran about 23 minutes and you oughta be able to hear it in the player below…

You would have been proud of me this morning. I was directing cartoon-type voices and in the studio next to us, a whopping six yards away, Ben Stein was recording something. I resisted the temptation to go over and ask him, "Uh, in light of these new revelations in the Johnson tapes, have you lost any of your respect for that Nixon guy you used to write speeches for?"

I used to like Ben Stein and would cite him as an example of that rarest of breeds — a funny Conservative. He occasionally still is and once in a while, since he isn't out to run for anything and doesn't make money telling the right-wing what it wants to hear, he says something disarmingly honest. But that's once in a while and he has much to answer for, including attempts to spin facts to try and rehabilitate Richard Nixon's image, his opposition to the Theory of Evolution and whatever role he played in Jimmy Kimmel having a career.

A lot of people think newsman Dan Rather's a bit of a kook. That's been true a long time and I remember that back when he published his first autobiography, a number of people thought that because of something he said in it. He was talking about the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago which, as you surely recall, had no incumbent running because then-President Lyndon Johnson had withdrawn as a candidate. So it came down to Hubert Humphrey versus anti-war candidates like Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern, and the entire party looked to be coming apart at the inseams.

In his 1977 book, The Camera Never Blinks, Rather insisted that L.B.J. had a plan he was unable to make work. It was to make a surprise appearance at the convention where some sort of carefully-engineered spontaneous outcry would insist that he accept the nomination for a second term after all. For the good of America and to bind the party together, he would accept and then sail to a landslide victory. Moreover, claimed Rather, Johnson would dump Humphrey from the ticket and replace him in a gesture of cross-party loyalty with the Republican (!) governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller. It all seemed so outrageous that no one believed Rather and I recall more than a few journalists and historians suggesting he was loco in the cabeza.

Well, Mr. Rather has been at least partially vindicated in the new release of some hitherto-classified tapes of L.B.J. phone calls. There appears to be no mention of the Rockfeller factor but there is conversation about the plan for President Johnson to make an unexpected appearance at the convention and to snatch back the nomination he had foregone. They say it didn't happen because Chicago Mayor Richard Daley couldn't assure L.B.J. he'd actually get that nomination and the Secret Service couldn't ensure Johnson's safety if he did plunge into that riot-filled, angry event. So there's an interesting twist in U.S. history that didn't happen.

This revelation is so far being ignored by the U.S. press because, you know, we care nothing about the past in this country except when we can use it against our enemies in the present. But the B.B.C. is doing stories about it and on this page, you can read the tale and hear excerpts from Johnson's recorded phone conversations. And the story I just told you isn't even the most shocking revelation.

It's the claim — supported by much evidence though I'd still like to see more — that Richard Nixon feared his '68 candidacy would be derailed if Johnson managed to end the Vietnam War so he secretly sabotaged the peace talks. Johnson thought Nixon had committed treason…and if he did what they say he did, that seems like a fair accusation. That was one of the amazing things about Nixon: Just when you thought your opinion of the man couldn't get any lower, he'd always surprise you.  It's somehow comforting to see he's still at it.

I was up at the Magic Castle last night where I saw a performance by these folks…

They're David and Dania, who tour the world with their amazing, much-imitated quick change act. I doubt very many in their audiences don't know roughly how it's done…it is, however, hard to figure out the particulars. I was in the second row and it's a little more impressive when it's live and you're eight feet away from them. Then again, sitting that close, you can't help but notice how Dania loses weight as the routine progresses.

The full act they did was a bit longer than in any online video and it incorporated some real magic tricks that did not involve either instantly switching wardrobe. What I love though is that these two people have perfected an act they can do anywhere — language not being an issue — and I don't think most people would mind seeing it many, many times. I sure wouldn't.

And of course on the way out, I overheard almost every man in the place say to the woman he was with, "Why can't you change your outfit that fast?"

We're more than halfway through March, the month when the Souplantation restaurants offer my favorite soup, their Classic Creamy Tomato. Each year, I plug it here for your enjoyment and to hope it will bolster sales enough that the Souplantation people will make it a more frequent offering in their repertoire. (Full Disclosure: The mentions here have in the past prompted the Souplantation folks to send me lotsa coupons for free meals there. However, just to assure you my integrity cannot be bought, you should know that this year, they haven't. So far.)

But do I have a coupon for you! Click here and you can print one out good for 20% off any meal you have there through the end of April. Do keep in mind that (a) my favorite soup will only be there through the end of March and (b) you can print this coupon out again and again as many times as you go. Matter of fact, if you sign up on their website for their Club Veg and if you go to the Souplantation page on Facebook, you can almost always score some sort of discount coupon for the place. You never have to pay full price.

Here's a page where you can see if there's a Souplantation within easy souping distance of you. In some venues, Souplantation is known as Sweet Tomatoes but I can't do anything about that. And if you like their Classic Creamy Tomato Soup even a smidgen as much as I do, here's a page where you can write or call to tell them to make it more often. I'm told calling their toll-free Customer Service number is a lot more effective than e-mailing.